Debra Disman

Artist

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Artists' Books

Friday Bookmakers Inspiration! We Stand (Sit?!) Together, Making Books! (4)

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I have been honored to work with a wonderful group of “older adults” at the Craft Contemporary Museum in Los Angeles, offering a series of workshops teaching bookmaking techniques, and providing a forum for creativity, imagination, sharing and story.

The series, “Crafting Our Stories By Hand” has had to be postponed due covid19.

Therefore, I have started an email newsletter to keep our community going, offering tips, images and sharing the work these makers are doing at home while “sheltering in place”.

Sharing these newsletters as a blog post makes their contents available for any and all. It inspiring to see what these makers have done and are doing during these crazy times.

Dear Bookmakers,

I am happy to bring you images, tips, inspiration and learning for your bookmaking journey.

I hope you are all well, staying safe, and creating!
Collie and Sunshine, have not heard from you yet…please send up a flare and let us know how you are doing….
Today I will share with you:
  • Wondrous new works by VICKI!
  • Wondrous new works by SANDRA!
  • A link to my blog post about an incredible exhibition of Flag Books created by teens!
Please note that images are included here, and also as attachments at the bottom of this email.
 
First, THIS:
The inside of Vicki’s “Book in a Box”, made for her granddaughter, that did not make it into last week’s newsletter! (Please see attached also-)
Inline image
Our newsletter from last week had an incorrect link! The link to last weeks’s newsletter mistakenly went to the Wikipedia page of the poet W.H. Auden…pardon me!
Here is that same newsletter, with corrected link, in the form of a blog post.
Now, onto this week’s content! (Using radical red for our verbiage…to give you a boost of energy during these challenging days).
 
PLEASE NOTE: Both Vicki and Sandra used maps in their BookWorks!
Interesting….
From VICKI!
“First book was made like paperbacks are made.” 


WOW
“The second is an envelope flip book with various pockets inside for storing travel ephemera.   The haiku book was created by assembling a number of different papers together putting them together in the press and gluing all edges on one side until it was like a note pad.  Then I just glued it together with the cover.  
OUTSIDE THE BOOK:
 
The inside pages with arrows indicate openings. Based on how many books I am sharing, you wisely said the sharing is important to the maker.”
 
INSIDE THE BOOK:
 
From SANDRA:
“I’m so glad you’ve created a weekly email for us. Keeps me going.
Also I spoke with Marisela at the museum today. All is well there.
Anyway, here is my work for the week. I tried a new structure for the first book and used old Paris postcards, a Paris map, and metro subway routes.”
“I found a little group of Polaroid snippets that my daughter found in one of her art classes in middle school eons ago. Gathered them up in a photo book of sorts, using the tied binding technique.
That’s it for now. I pore over the bookmaking books all of the time to get ideas. What great resources!“

Finally, enjoy and let us know what you think about these amazing Flag Books VAPA (Visual and Performing Arts) students created at Verdugo Hills High School this past Winter. Just click either link to read the post.
What do YOU think about how the form of the book can connect what we present on the Outside, to what we actually feel on the Inside?
One of those systems of opposites we talked about, and I suggested you use a =s a creative prompt for your bookmaking, content, visuals and writing!
In case you missed it, here is our second newsletter in the form of a blog post, if it is easier for you to read, share and enjoy in this format.

Well that is it for this week dear Craft Contemporary Bookmakers!

If you are able, and so inclined, email us all back and share something book-related, or anything of interest you wish.

Stay safe, stay strong, stay well

STAY CREATIVE!
In peace and hope and truth and beauty,

debra

Friday Bookmakers Inspiration! We Stand (Sit?!) Together, Making Books! (3)

By

I have been honored to work with a wonderful group of “older adults” at the Craft Contemporary Museum in Los Angeles, offering a series of workshops teaching bookmaking techniques, and providing a forum for creativity, imagination, sharing and story.

The series, “Crafting Our Stories By Hand” has had to be postponed due covid19.

Therefore, I have started an email newsletter to keep our community going, offering tips, images and sharing the work these makers are doing at home while “sheltering in place”.

Sharing these newsletters as a blog post makes their contents available for any and all. It inspiring to see what these makers have done and are doing during these crazy times.

Dear Bookmakers,

I am happy to bring you images, tips, inspiration and learning for your bookmaking journey.

I hope you are all well, staying safe, and creating!

Today I will share with you:
  • More wondrous works by Sandra and Vicki
  • Samples of a “Poetry Flag Book” project in honor of April, National Poetry Month
  • A link to a  special book  “Books and Their Artists”, on sale right now through the Getty shared by CORNELIA…thank you Cornelia! I actually own this book and it  is amazing, detailed, informative and informational. See right below!
“Book in a Box” created by Vicki for her Granddaughter

Vicki says about the vertical accordion book below:
 “My dearest friend was moved deeply by this W.H. Auden poem after the death of her husband.”

Vicki says, “Hope everyone is having as much fun as I am!”

Sandra says of the next two amazing books she made:
“I am now mining materials around the house for my book making.  
So inspired by Jeannine’s (Jeannine Stein…whose books I shared in last week’s newsletter) entry using a game board, I made my first book – an acknowledgment to our collective situation.”
“For the second book I (Sandra) dismantled a photography exhibition catalog and using the packing tape transfer technique Marsha taught us in class and a little collage work, I reassembled my version of the catalog.” (Brilliant!)
Please see below some images of a “Poetry Flag Book” that a student of mine from 2012 made after our workshop at the West Hollywood Library, and gifted me with! It contains another W.H. Auden poem! which the maker used both in full, and also cut up and rearranged on the Flag pages!

Something you can try at home, to celebrate April, National Poetry Month.

Remember, you can use the online resources of the Los Angeles Public Library any time during this time.

The Public Library is THERE FOR US ALL!

Check out their LIBRARY AT HOME resources.

Well that is it for this week dear Craft Contemporary Bookmakers!

If you are able, and so inclined, email us all back and share something book-related, or plaything you wish, of interest,

Stay safe, stay strong, stay well

STAY CREATIVE!

In peace and hope and truth and beauty,
debra

Friday Bookmakers Inspiration! We Stand (Sit?!) Together, Making Books! (2)

By

I have been honored to work with a wonderful group of “older adults” at the Craft Contemporary Museum in Los Angeles, offering a series of workshops teaching bookmaking techniques, and providing a forum for creativity, imagination, sharing and story.

The series, “Crafting Our Stories By Hand” has had to be postponed due covid19.

Therefore, I have started an email newsletter to keep our community going, offering tips, images and sharing the work these makers are doing at home while “sheltering in place”.

Sharing these newsletters as a blog post makes their contents available for any and all. It inspiring to see what these makers have done and are doing during these crazy times.

Dear Bookmakers,

I am happy to bring you images, tips, inspiration and learning for your bookmaking journey.

I hope you are all well, staying safe, and creating!

Today I will share with you:

  • Exciting new works and beautiful works begun in our class by Joan Fujita, by Sandra Ow-Wing, and Martha Watson. Very cool. 
  • Introduction to one of my mentors, Jeannine Stein, writer, bookmaker and teacher! Two wonderful books that could enhance your creativity and sheltering in place during this trying time:

    Re-Bound: Creating Handmade Books from Recycled and Repurposed Materials

    Adventures in Bookbinding: Handcrafting Mixed-Media Books

     
     
  • I have put our first bookmakers newsletter into the form of a blog post. If you missed it, please click here.
I have attached images of Joan’s, Sandra’s, and Martha’s beautiful and unique books below, but you can also see them here:
Joan’s layered and textural Single Signature books, working beautifully with textiles:
Sandra’s unique accordion fold book with pockets:
 
 
Sandra’s amazing side bound book inspired by the artist John Baldasarri’s “dots on faces” work:

 

Emotional and evocative Flag Book by Martha:

Well that is it for this week dear Craft Contemporary Bookmakers!

If you are able, and so inclined, email us all back and share something book-related, or plaything you wish, of interest,

Stay safe, stay strong, stay well

STAY CREATIVE!

In peace and hope and truth and beauty,
debra

 

Friday Bookmakers Inspiration! We Stand (Sit?!) Together, Making Books! (1)

By

I have been honored to work with a wonderful group of “older adults” at the Craft Contemporary Museum in Los Angeles, offering a series of workshops teaching bookmaking techniques, and providing a forum for creativity, imagination, sharing and story.

The series, “Crafting Our Stories By Hand” has had to be postponed due covid19.

Therefore, I have started an email newsletter to keep our community going, offering tips, images and sharing the work these makers are doing at home while “sheltering in place”.

Sharing these newsletters as a blog post makes their contents available for any and all. It inspiring to see what these makers have done and are doing during these crazy times.

Enjoy!

Dear Bookmakers,

I am happy to bring you images, tips, inspiration and learning for your bookmaking journey.

I hope you are all well, staying safe, and creating!

Today I will share with you:

  • A simple “pocketed” accordion book structure, into which you can keep recipes, poems, notes to yourself, keepsakes, photos,
  • Inspiration for creating “altered books”, for yourself or fun with the whole family, 
  • Images shared by some of our students of amazing books they have created at home!

Joan also sent some beautiful images of exquisite books she has completed at home, and I hope she gives me permission to share them!

To create a simple accordion fold book with pockets, simply add another fold!


Fold the accordion as you did in class in creating your accordion fold books, then unfold, and fold the pocket up from the bottom.

You will have to really sharpen those folds to make the accordion open and close easily. Then just add your covers, and you are ready to fill your pockets!

Take a look at these “altered books” I photographed while visiting the Long Beach Museum of Art!

 

School children added paint, drawing, writing and collage to existing books, to create their own stories! Great project to do on your own, or suggest to the families and children in your lives! Use an old, discarded or out of date textbook, or replaceable paperback you have already read. Fun!

Finally, please enjoy these wonderful books created by three of our illustrious bookmakers:

Well that is it for this week dear Craft Contemporary Bookmakers!

If you are able, and so inclined, email us all back and share something book-related, or plaything you wish, of interest,

Stay safe, stay strong, stay well

STAY CREATIVE!

In peace and hope and truth and beauty,
debra

Making Journals at the Granada Hills Branch Library

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It was a pleasure to lead a “journal-making” workshop/program at the Granada Hills Branch Library as part of my Artist Residency there, supported by the wonderful Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

Who knew creating a journal, traditionally a place to record daily thoughts, ideas, activities, fears, concerns, dreams and wishes would be so salient?


Families joined together to learn how to fold a “signature” (gathering of folded pages),


glue cover and spine boards to white-prepped canvas to create the book structure and “house” the pages,


then sew the signature  into the book through the spine using durable, earthy  hemp cord.


Having exerted this labor to create their book structure,  participants had the glorious pleasure of developing and embellishing their journals with decorative papers, washi tape, markers, beads, and other collage materials. The canvas book covering, functioning as a book cloth is a wonderful surface for painting, stamping, printmaking, stenciling and any other wet or dry media.

May journaling help all and any through this very difficult time we are in.
Journal on!

Feeding our Souls: Making Recipe Books at the Granada Hills Branch Library

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As part of my Artist Residency at the Granada Hills Branch Library supported by the wonderful Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, I led a “Recipe Book” workshop for the community, showing participants how to create an accordion-fold book with pockets to hold treasured recipes old and new.
Families and participants of various ages joined us, and make beautiful, whimsical and striking books
   
So much fun to see the makers show and share their creations!
 
 
Absolutely beautiful!